The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-315186, filed Nov. 22, 2006 is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device. More specifically, the present invention relates to a liquid crystal device and electronic apparatus capable of displaying at least two images in different directions at the same time.
2. Related Art
In a known configuration, a liquid crystal device is provided with a pair of substrates with a liquid crystal layer between the pair of substrates. In some configurations, the liquid crystal device has a barrier mask substrate that is provided on the surface of one of the substrates described above. The barrier mask substrate has a barrier layer wherein openings are formed. Using this configuration, the liquid crystal device of the related art is capable of simultaneously displaying two images in different directions. Japanese Patent No. 2,857,429 discloses a three-dimensional (3D) image display device which is capable of offering a stereoscopic display of two images in the above-described manner.
It is further known in the art in an exemplary application that two observers can receive differing views of the two images, meaning that one person can view one image obliquely from the left side while the other person can view the other image obliquely from the right side. This is achieved by making the display directions of the above-mentioned two images substantially different from each other. In a liquid crystal device capable of performing the “dual-screen” (i.e., in a virtual sense) display described above, the observers view the display not from the normal direction of the substrate (i.e., from the front direction) but mainly from an oblique angle.
Since a typical liquid crystal devices are configured so as to offer the maximum display contrast when viewed from the front, it is difficult to ensure a satisfactory contrast when the display is viewed at an oblique angle in the “dual-screen” system described above. Thus, when a liquid crystal device is used in a dual-screen display without adopting any effective technical solution, the display contrast of the two images at their optimum display angle will be poor, which deteriorates the visibility of the individual images.